{lex's lethal luau}

{its a blustery day, pooh!}

holy cannelloni batman!! for the last 2 days it has been intensely windy and rainy, the wind gusts and rain have been very intense at times!! i am so over it, i can't even tell you! the kids are out of school, mark is out of work (yeah!), but i am working and i have decided to commission the bank to get windshield wipers for the drive-thru window... i can hardly see out of them. On the upside, we haven't lost electricity. Just a few little "brown outs" every now and then and believe it or not, but satellite has been great. That is still shocking to me because in Virginia if it even threatened a little rain, the satellite went out...and the electricity would go out on a perfectly beautiful day! I am loving the underground electricity, what an invention! well, we've got lots of party prepping for tonight. Mark and the kids are going to start making Lumpia today which I haven't made since we lived in Hawaii. Its a recipe that I got from a little phillipino lady at our church. i am kinda excited about it. Please Fay go away, you are not exactly helping with the whole luau theme of poor Lex's party.

{fay fay go away!}

you are just irritating me TODAY!!

this stupid whatever system is really cramping my entire week!! the kids are out of school today, they called me into work to work a few hours today, i haven't gone to the grocery store for Lex's luau party because if we do loose electricity or have to postpone the party, i don't want a lot of food.....AAARGGHH!! Make up your mind you stupid storm.....you are just irrititating me today!

{squillen:party planner extraordinaire}

so today was spent with my creatingpostitnotes.blogspot/2peas/scrappin/notabigfanofhobunk friend who has offered to help me out with Lex's party regarding the food and she is an awesome cake decorator to top it all off!! Her name is Suzanne, but her 2peas screen name is squillen, so we'll just go with that!! She came over to the house today to help with the menu planning and trying to figure out what kind of cake the pretty pretty princess wanted for her big 16! Its going to be fun, but funky ! Okay, so for those of you with no lives of your own that have been hanging on to the seats of your pants (what kind of saying is that? or is that the saying? its late and i'm wondering if i just made that up!).....Lex's luau party is a Lethal Dinner party luau, its a murder mystery dinner party where the kids dress up like certain characters and they will have lines and there is a CD and by the end of the evening, we will have a murderer on our hands (insert evil laugh). how fun is that?? especially if you know my drama queen!

Thanks Suzanne!! P.S. later in the evening, she dropped off one of her 2peas infamous cinnamon rolls and all i have to say is OMG Yummy!! And the muffin top is back!!! AARGGHH!!!

{gathering the spoils}

yesterday was a day that started off kinda blah! i was still feeling well, kinda blah!! i had taken nyquil on Saturday night after a day of laying around with my body feeling like a big pile of poo, but my mind racing like mad with all of the things that i had intended to accomplish this weekend. Lex's birthday party is going to be on the 23rd and i have procrastinated on getting things together for it, some of it because i was waiting on the "party box" (i will blog more on that later...it is SSSSOOO exciting) and part of it was i was waiting until the 15th paycheck. But to wake up on the weekend that had a to-do list a mile long and not be able to get my groove on was disappointing for me..... Anyway, back to yesterday, after a sluggish waking up out of my nyquil induced coma (what a wonderful induced come it was i might add, i didn't even hear Markie snore once!), Lex and I headed out to find what we needed......Luau birthday party supplies...

Well, little do we know that apparently Luau is "seasonal" and Halloween is what its all about BABY! ! So, the pickens were slim, so we were faced with a dilemna, and decided to go a little different route. A more "authentic" Luau route, we got some bamboo disposable plates & utensils (how cool is that??) and I found some table top tiki torches, a bamboo table runner, coconut cups, umbrella straws and some lei's for all of the guests! The girl and I had a good time gathering the spoils for her party. I will blog more tomorrow about what her party is going to be, its not your typical luau.....i'm not your typical mom, she's not a typical 16 year old girl. its a luau with a "twist"!! i can hardly wait!

{like poo}

i don't get sick often, i am usually one who goes full force 24/7 with the occassional headache, but i have the worst head cold, i just feel like poo!!! and honestly, i just don't have the time or the patience for this! i have so much to do this weekend. lex's big 16 is next weekend and i have so much to do this weekend and both kids have cheer and band crap all day today. Mark has been working a lot lately AGAIN and i hate putting that on him,but he worked all night last night and came home this AM and picked up both kids and took them to their perspective "events" at school. Please, oh please, let this medicine start kicking in so that I can re-energize and get moving and get what I need to get done.....don't you just hate feeling like poo!!!???

{laying low}

as of late, we have just been laying low and not doing much of anything. the kids have been just doing their school thing. Action is getting excited about band and playing the sax next week. my cousin let us borrow her sax, which is in the shop having the cork repaired and he can't wait to get his grubby hands on it. lex in the meantime has gotten picked up for a lead in a play for her advanced drama class. she will be playing in some drama competitions this fall and also performing in the school play. she was very excited, it has some singing parts as well as acting... then of course, there's 24/7 cheer practice....

i have been scrapping and getting ready (in my head) for lex's 16th birthday... mark has been back to working his hiney off. we are just laying low here in snoozerville....and that's a wrap!

{4176 text messages}

yep, you read right!! my child had 4176 text messages both incoming & outgoing in one month...mind you we haven't provided the pretty pretty princess with "unlimited" text messaging. We have generously provided her with unlimited verizon to verizon, which she has a lot of friends who have that and 1500 whoever texts....sounds rather generous wouldn't you think?? she has always stayed within her texts. We used to have a problem with her staying within her "alloted" shared minutes and we increased our family share plan, but I am NOT increasing her soon to "carpal tunnel of the thumbs texting disease just because i don't want to have a real conversation with someone" texting.....this texting is a huge rip off from the phone companies, they have sold the American youth a bill of goods, and we the parents have allowed it. We are the generation of parents that are good with "keeping up with the Jones'". Why didn't we say no, we are not putting on "the taco suit" so that you can become socially inept to deal with others, we are not going to allow the cell phone companies to financially drain us, the parents, so that you can add to the list of gadgets that you "have to have" on a cell phone. She's gone over, so my bill is WAY over what I would normally pay and if you think about it.....its a racket!! What does it cost the cell phone companies to allow text messaging??? Now the question is this? Will I allow the child to live? Cause right now, I just want to crown her and I don't mean queen for the day!! AAARGGHHH!!! Technology, some of it i wish had just stayed in some geeks stinken la la land......

{as susan powter would say!!}

"Stop the Insanity!".....i know you remember this lady, she was a weight loss guru, i don't even know what "plan" she was peddeling back in the 80's, i guess i could "google" her, but truthfully..I don't want to. I just remember her infomercials, she had very short stick'em up bleach blonde hair and i think that she even shaved her head once, a little Brittney action was going on there. BUT this post isn't about weight loss, been there done that. This is about that screeching from my TV..."Stop the insanity" and there are times in my life where I feel like screaming that myself and this was one of those crazy weeks. While my Mom was here and I really enjoyed her visit, the kids were in their first week of school and the homework was just ridiculous and we we're getting up at not the crack of dawn, but the BUTT crack of dawn to get things rolling and just getting Action to school in the morning is an hour long process between driving, getting into the school, dropping off the kids and getting home. I am carpooling, but i did that on the days that i am not working and then pick-up is even worse. Some may say, there's the bus....this is middle school, the bus stop is a LLLOONG way from our house, the bus is way over crowded and the stories of fights, sex and videotape have been too much for a Mom of a "baby boy" to stand. Actually, I admit that i made up the videotape part, but maybe, it could happen!!! Lex on the other hand is practicing @ the school until late everyday or starting @ 6AM and then she has been bogged down with a ton of homework and its only the first week!! I miss my summer, not that we had lazy summer days, there was nothing lazy or relaxing about this last summer which kind of makes me sad, it came and went and knowing that we really only have one more summer with Lex before she goes off to college. Now, I'm just depressed.

{muffin top report}

now i know that for the last week i have had a ton of you stalking my blog just waiting for this post! you've been clamouring on a daily basis to find out how the old "muffin top" is doing after my intentions for full battle were declared last week....well, today is YOUR LUCKY day!! The post is here, i did go to my meeting and was quite unimpressed with the charisma of it....loosing weight and the tricks of that trade are so exciting and you should be shouting it from the roof tops, not talk about it like its dull and dry and cannot be challenging and even fun. Did I just say fun, heck yes! For me, figuring out how to "beat" the system and eat and loose weight is almost like a game to me, it is fun! I want to go in there with guns blazing. The meeting though, is much more subdued, but I was quite the chatty cathy, my hand went flying up with every question, sometimes i was "overlooked", accidentally or on purpose....that is the question, but its neither here nor there. Little do they know, I am back and their little weight watcher meetings are going to be turned UPSIDE DOWN! I am figuring out how to beat the hunger pains and stay within my points just the same and they are gonna hear about it...

P.S. I have lost 4 lbs...........bye bye muffin top, unfortunatley, that's probably NOT where i actuallly lost it.

{back 2 skool blues}

Friday was back 2 school, I still can't believe it! The week was a whirlwind and I thought that Friday was going to be INSANE! But it was smoother than I expected, I think partly because it was the FIRST day of school, both of the kids were up movin' & shakin' and we're ready to go on time!! That is not the norm for my kids, so we'll see how long it lasts! Action's teacher's seem like they are going to be awesome! I am super impressed, which is a far cry from last year so that is a relief and i think that he had a good day, minus the cafeteria food which was his biggest complaint of the day and it that's the biggest complaint then we are off to a rockin' start! Lex on the other hand when I talked to her, she said it was an awful first day of school. So, we will see. Her schedule the first semester is going to be so busy, she has drama competitions and cheer competitions that may collide!! cheer practice everyday......holy cow, i'm getting exhausted just thinking about it!!! at least this week, i go back to my regularly scheduled schedule and my Mom is coming to visit.....

{lu's nu do!}

here's a pic of lex's (sometimes i call her Lu, don't ask me why) new hairdo. School starts tomorrow and the insanity of the week will end tomorrow! Thanks goodness!! We've got school supplies, open houses, and a few clothes for school. Today, she decided she wanted something totally different, no more blonde @ all!! She looks so different. She is so grown up looking. Tomorrow is the first day of school.....let the games begin!!

{toothpicks required}

Holy Cow, I am pooped! I need toothpicks to prop my eyelids open! Mark has been working for weeks non-stop for 14 hour days, its the best shore duty EVAH!! I heart the Navy! Did you note the sarcasm in there?? I have not seen him, i think i saw him last night on the couch, but then again it could have been a delusion. I'm starting to miss that man of mine. The kids have had "stuff" going on for back to school which starts in 2 crazy days!! I've waited until the last minute to get school stuff/clothes/schedule changes and Lex has had all kinds of crazy cheer crap this week and 2 open houses....my full time schedule and i am just exhausted. i'm not sleeping and then i get to work and that's what i want to do, catch up on the zzz's. when is Saturday? Until then, no kicks & giggles if you see me with toothpicks propping up the ole' droopy lids.......

{day 2}

i know i have said it before, but this time i really really mean it!! i am not going to loose this battle, i am a warrior princess and the battle of the muffin top is ON!! I started back on Weight Watcher's yesterday and my first meeting will be on Saturday.....my goal is 20 lbs... Luckily, i ran into my new neighbor, who i absolutely love. We have a lot in common, she's not a scrapbooker, but she is an incredible photographer and we just seem like we've got a lot in common (poor thing....) And my neighbor is going to do Weight Watchers with me, so hopefully that will be more of a motivation. I have started walking in the evenings what equals to be about 2 miles and i can feel it in in buttocks, which is great because i could definitely loose a little bit of that junk in the trunk!! Tighten those glutes!! I really didn't realize how much "junk in the trunk" i was getting until i tried on a cute pair of white crop pants in Virginia and WOW!! that said it all, it said "put these pants back on the rack girl and look for something in the black or denim department!" So far, I am not starving, I am doing okay on my "points", I have to keep telling myself that hunger pains are NOT death pains.....

{my movie reviews}

it has been the craziest week....my kids and their friends have kept me going non-stop. not that we have been going anywhere, we did manage to check out a few movies. First of all, we did see The Dark Knight in IMAX and it was totally awesome....i took Lex and 2 of her friends with me and Action for what I thought was about a 45 minute drive just south of the border and it turned into quite a bit farther than that, but it was a lot of fun when we fianlly got there, the movie was definitely the best by far. Secondly, Action and I checked out "meet dave", the girls wanted to see "Mama Mia", but i had promised my Mom that i would see it with her and i have seen the broadway production and it was a little racey and so i thought i had to find something more "approriate" for my 11 year old boy and "meet Dave" ended up being really, really funn!! It sure beat that monkey/chimp movie he wanted to see. That was a good save! thanks Karen for the review, you saved me a snooze in the theatre!

Next week, stay tuned because it should be a ball of snoozerville's here in hobunk...i am working full time again while both of my kids are at home by themselves until school starts on Friday!! And then we start all over again....i'm not sure i'm ready for school...i don't feel like we've had a summer yet...do you know that i haven't even been to the pool yet?? i am such a white chick! (insert rolling eyes)

{no poop fests allowed}

It may seem crude, but true....Its a day of "spare the square" @ my house today! Both Mark and i are at work all day with 3 kids at our house with one roll of TP which Mark discovered last night. i went grocery shopping at the world's most infuriating Wal Mart yesterday and spent a mega ton of dinero, but forgot the TP, what gives? So, i have been here and a little stressed about them over-using and there being a big "poop fest" and not enough squares to go around. i am a bit anxious to get out of here and swing by yet again another trip to the infuriating Wal Mart for a bulk sized package of Charmin for my darlings little derriere's.....uuggh!

{crushin' on little LuLu}

okay, so my son is 11!! he has probably had crushes here and there, but none that he would ever discuss with me or has ever lead anyone that i know of to be aware of. But this child came back from his vacation with his Mimi & Papa and he has talked & talked & showed & showed this little prized posession trading card of this can-can dancer from Ghost Town named LuLu. He got her autograph, you would have thought that he was holding in his hand a autographed picture of Madonna. He says its his girlfriend. I know that I mentioned in a previous post that he wanted the picture of him & ALL of the can-can girls blown up to poster sized for his room. If you really look @ the picture, HE has the cheesiest grin on his face, its hillarious! This is a child that I can hardly get to smile these days in front of the camera, yet ear to ear that smile goes while surrounded by those long legged ladies. It totally cracks me up. My little man finally has a crush and amazinly enough its on a 20something can can girl from the wild wild west.......yee haw!

{full moons & the crazies are out}

its been a weird little week in my world. i have been working all week in beautiful Fernandina and loving it, but every day something not quite right has happened which has given me the heebie jeebies and has left me wondering if we've had a full moon here lately?? i guess that i could research it or in the very least take a looksie out my window, but that would require more effort than i am willing to give at this point. So, i am going to assume by my experiences this week that there was indeed a full moon...

we have had computers go bizzerk, alarm systems with their very own agendas, some of our customers with certain oddball situations and last but not least we've had 2 crazies in here this week. One just a little charismatic that was in the bank and was actually fun to talk to and the other yesterday, completely certifiably off his rocker whack job one who flew over the cuckoo's nest nutcase! He was dressed in 2 women's flowery shirts, a shirt on his head (like Jesus), saying that he had his own "town" should go with him to "his town", he basically talked a lot of jibberish and as he finally left he said not to drink the water, he had the water of the Nile and it was the only safe water to drink. In all honesty, he scared me. about 15 minutes later, he was in the middle of the street yelling. We called the police and they said that they had already received a call and we're on their way, they approached him with a good bit of distance and I am assuming that they told him to leave, I locked the door of the bank and as he walked by, if looks could kill. So, its just been that kind of week....the crazies are out and i am blogging about it! Oh, just as I have been on this, my fellow teller-in-crime checked the whole moon thing, tonight is a full moon, so today should be pretty interesting!!! I'm not supersticious, but its a good thing its not the 13th......happy Friday!!

{the accidental cheer chick}

oh lordy! my child!! i love that child of mine, but she is the most accidental prone child as of late that i have seen. i would like to say that she gets it honest, but honestly i think that she is just in her own little la la land and doesn't pay so much attention, either that or she has an unnatural attraction to gravity. last week, while visiting one of her BFF's in Charleston, SC she got in a big cupcake fight at her friend's sweet sixteen and she was the only one that ended up biting the pavement, so to speak, and ended up with some pretty major "boo boo's" on her arms and legs. She began cheer camp on Monday and she was sore, but being the go getter cheer chick, she managed. On Wednesday, they left to go out of town to finish up 4 more days of cheer camp with other high schools and she called last night to tell me that as she was getting off the bus, she fell out of the bus, and busted open her other knee and other arm and elbow. She said that she was so embarrassed and now she has matching band-aids and "boo boo's". What to do with that child of mine....?

{tea towels & school houses}

i have been married for, um let's see.....18 years, yeah, i think that's it. Its been so long I am starting to loose track and I have to start counting on my fingers how long its been. But none the less, Mark still cracks me up with the different ways that we talk and the way we were raised. I am a Florida girl, he's a Kentucky boy. I was raised in a girlie house in the fact that it was 3 girls verses my Dad, who was always very respectful of us girls in the fact that he never cursed or burped or "tooted" in front of us and its not something that we discussed or became a topic of any conversation. Mark, on the other hand, was raised in a more formal house of beautiful antiques, china dishes, but with a brother and most of his life a single Mom. So, these topics seemed to be more of a "laughing matter" and a fact of life in his home, and i mean no disrespect in that, it just is what it is... But my language form is very laid back and not very articulate, some may call it southern (without an accent) and some may say informal, but again, it is what it is. I guess what sparked this little observation is that yesterday Mark said two things that had me teasing him, he was asking me about Lex going to the "school house", who calls it a school house? If we were in Little House in the Prarie times or lived in Amish country, I'd say yeah! School house it is, but this school is a monster. This school had nearly a thousand kids graduate last year. Later in the evening, he referred to a dish towel, yes a dish towel as a "tea towel"....there was no tea involved and a tea towel is something that Grannie embroidered with little pink flowers, am i right? We use dish towels for dirty dishes and dirty counter tops. Who says that? I just find it funny that even after being married for so long that he can say little quirky things that get me giggling and remind me that he is that Kentucky boy that I married and we are so different in more ways than one. i love my quirky talkin' Kentucky boy!!

{& so it begins....}

last weekwas so laid back with the kids gone....the house never got messy, i didn't have any running around to do, no demands on me ,i could have walked around naked (not that I did, but I totally could have) and besides my normal 2 work days, it was easy sneazy. Then on Saturday, Action was back and on Sunday, I drove to Savannah to pick up Lex and we are back to an even crazier routine than usual. Lex came back with some pretty major 'boo boo's", she fell in the middle of the street, apparently there was some cupcake fight involved, trust me we don't really want or need to know the details. But she fell and skinned several parts of her body. So, she is sore, but cheerleading camp starts today, hard core cheerleading camp. Action is at home by himself as I write this and I think to myself.....please let him have brushed his teeth and not totally trashed the joint and watched so much Cartoon Network that his brain has turned to noodle mush. Mark and myself are working full time this week and I will actually be working out of town. So this week will be insane with everything and Lex's schedule. So, it begins.........

{Action's Back, now there's gonna be trouble!}

my Action is back in town, he has been gone on a week long vacation with his Mimi & Papa in North Carolina hanging with Can-can girls, fighting on the wrong side of the "law", and whirlin' himself on coasters in GhostTown. He's been doing a little, train riding and tubing and taking nature walks with Papa.....Action has not been "home" in 4 weeks (yes, I said 4 weeks!!), he has pit stopped here for less than 24 hours twice in that timeframe and I have missed him so much and he has missed his neighborhood peeps AKA as kids in the hood . He can't wait to get out and hang with them and that just equals trouble with a capital "T", I say that in jest. i am just so glad to have him back at home, I know that the "kids in the hood" will be glad to have him back...

By the way, the picture of him & the Can Can girls, he is requesting that it be blown up to poster size and be put up in his room!!! He is a ladies man!!

{does my new banner rock or what?}

i have been a scrappin' machine (check out all the new layouts on my slide...) this "kid free" week. I feel like i've gotten my MoJO back and my pages are pretty darn good, they definitely look better in "real scrap life" and in about 5 minutes, I threw together my new blog banner....Betty Blogger is rockin' in the banner department, yeah??? I hope you like it because truthfully i hated my other one, but never wanted to mess with it...have a great weekend, we are going to be busy receiving and retrieving our kids...its gonna be a long one..

{hancock}

well, we finally got to our movie night. Mark and i went for a "night on the town". Woo-hoo, a little BBQ chicken, some Dollar Tree shoppin', and a movie. We are real party animals, yeah? Rock Stars we are, Nickelback's got not nothing on US!! Its the life! Anyway, all sarcasm aside, we did have a pretty good little date night. The whole Dollar Tree expereince with Mark, I truly could have skipped. It wasn't until tonight that I realized that I have never actually been to the Dollar Tree with Mark and I'm thinking that we should have kept it that way. He didn't want to be in there, he wanted to go, so what better way to torture me than to continually ask how much everything was. The funny thing is, he put more in the cart than I did. I went in looking for a chipboard book that Juliet had found in Virginia (they didn't have it), we walked out with grooming & back to school supplies by the truckload, but I lucked out with post it notes that say "the princess gets what the princess wants"....maybe that's what I should write all of my "honey do lists" on....

The movie of choice, "hancock". It was actually really good. Not thrilled with the language. Its one that Action won't be seeing anytime soon unfortunately. He had it on his list of summer must see's. But the language was a strong PG-13, which I don't know why they have to do that. It makes me crazy. Anyway, date night over and I am back to being "blogger betty" and he is watching "So you think you can dance" with that laughin heinia lady (she makes my skin crawl).

{& the stupid shall be punished}

that's a favorite quote of Mark's and today I got what that actually meant....

being that i am kid free and Mark was working and its my day off, i decided that i would spend my day scrapping and catching up on my DVR'd "stories" (what is going on on All My Kids & GH??, I am so lost!!!!!!) Anyway, back to my stupid story, I am cropping away and I actually did one of my all time favorite pages (its Lorrie's 2006 Birthday page, I might add...its super cute!!) and decided a puncture wound to my knuckle was in order. How would scrapbooking cause such a wound you might ask??? You know those Stickles, I am lovin the Stickles on occassion when I decide my page needs a little extra bling. Well, this birthday page needed a little "something something", but the tube was clogged and what to shove into a little hole to unclog that would do the trick?? Why, a Cutterbee scissor or course!! Except for the fact that if you shove it hard enough it just might slip and dive into the hand holding the Stickles. The weird thing is that at first I thought, "wow, I'm not even going to bleed, its not that deep" and then after what seemed like a few minutes, not only did blood come gushing out but unbelievable pain filled my entire hand & up my arm. Did I just share too much? Anyway, enough with the blood and gore, after I got things under control and determined that I didn't need stitches (thank goodness because I wasn't prepared to go to the hospital....i hadn't straightened my hair today or put on any makeup...,but i did have on clean underwear) I realized how stupid of an idea it was to do what I did and I guess that's what I get and now my whole left knuckle hurts like a booger....

{fancy free}

Markie Poo and I are fancy free and lovin our kid free week....well, so far just the first day of it. Our little Lex Lou Who is in Charleston with her gal pal, Ashley for the week. Action took off with his Mimi and Papa for a week in the hills of North Carolina for a week of tubing and riding trains and whatever it is that you do in the hills (I'm kind of a city girl so I have no clue). I am just hoping that at this point he doesn't come home with ticks. Although, he went to his Grannie and Pops house and worked in the barn cleaning horse stalls for a week and the child came home with horse cream that he insists on rubbing on his arms and legs not once, but twice a day. When he starts to grow a main (hey, no comments from the peanut gallery on that one) and starts saying "nay", we are going to have some issues. Anyway, I hope that both the kids are having great summer adventures while Mark and I are chillin' here.

We actually headed out to Jacksonville Landing, which we had heard was a hotspot. Its on the St John's River and has shops, entertainment, and dining. We got there and while it could be really cool, most of the shops were gone and there weren't that many restaraunts and no entertainment (at least in the middle of a Sunday afternoon). But we were looking for something as cheap as possible to do, so much going and traveling, camp, cheerleading this summer is taking its toll on us and we thought just walking around on the water would be nice on a not too hot summer day, but then the skies opened up and it started to pour. We did have a great time just checking everything out though. Now we are home and just enjoying our time together.....(who am I kidding??? Mark is playing WII and I am blogging and peaing!! Do we need some romance or what??) Tomorrow, I go back to work and Mark is actually going out of town for work, maybe we can squeeze in a movie this week. Any suggestions? Anyone seen Hancock?? Whats the real deal on that one??

My previous life AKA Virginia Vaca pics...

{my previous life}

a whirlwind, exhausting, fun, liberating, depressing, glimpse back into my previous life is complete which consisted of a quick trip back to Virginia. Virginia is where we moved from a year ago and some of my very closest friends AKA my "peeps" are there for all of us. Lex basically moved in with several of her friends and we basically didn't see her the entire time while Action hung out with the Q Crew and got to spend some time with some of my peeps little one's who aren't so little anymore. I was "on the go" so much i could not hardly catch my breath and I loved every minute of it!!! I got to spend so much time with everyone and we had so much fun. It went by too quickly...i got to spend some time scrapping at my favorite LSS. Also celebrated the store's 9th birthday.

I decided to do a slide show with me and my peeps "escapades" from my visit. I hope you enjoy and choose not to judge. We always have such a great time when we get together and there is always the possibility that a little silliness will break out....sorry, its a given that a little silliness will break out and what a better way to document that than with my camera...poses,deciding we are all old and need grannie glasses, margaritas even for those "lightweights", disney parties for a 40 year old man who actually liked his disney princess pez dispenser gag gift, brunches that include "thong" talk and a variety of bagels and cream cheese, shopping, cropping, a Water Country moment that I would like to remove from my memory and Maggie Moo's 2 nights in a row!

thanks for the good times...my gangsta scrappin' peeps and that includes you tonton!

i have officially donated enough money to the oil companies, speculator's and the saudi's for the rest of the summer and will no longer be traveling again for quite some time. I am elated not to pull up to a pump and watch my child's college fund go into the tank, at least for quite some time....i am waiting to receive my certificate of appreciation in the mail any time now....does anyone read farsi, arabic, or greed??

{a project & a pea}

the most laid back weekend in forever...to the point where i started to go a little stir crazy, but i can't spend any money because we (the kids and I) are leaving for Virginia in a few days and i need as much of the green stuff for the oily stuff as i can get. i've had a major project on hold since i've moved into the house a year ago and finally got it complete. i had the pictures and the plan, i had the paper, but changed my mind after Basic Grey's Boxer line came out. Ooooh lala! it was so pretty and it went really well in my house. Anyway, as you can tell in the pics. i put these LO's on canvas and modpodged over them, therefore sealing them and hung them in a long hall way in my house, hanging them from black ribbon. They spell out life. I love the way that they look and i had a ton of fun doing them and so glad that they are complete...whoo hoo!

And I cannot NOT post about my night last night, my sweet Olympic, Nascar watching husband was making me crazy watching TV last night. I was so bored out of my skull that I was on the message boards on 2peas (I had scrapped until i thought my brains were going to come out of my eyeballs) and while things were getting a little insanely silly on the NSBR boards, my little friend down the road whose blog that I stalk http://www.creatingpostitnotes.blogspot.com/ (its a cooking blog) because I actually use a lot of the recipes from it. Anyway, she got on 2peas we started chatting back and forth ended up meeting for the 9:45 showing of "Get Smart" which was an unexpected surprise and a lot of fun. Unfortunately, they are moving in a few months. Such a bummer and becoming the story of my life. Anyway, we had a good time and the movie was a hoot.

{rah! rah!..its Saturday!}

this week has gone by in a whirlwind of sheer craziness! Action has been at his Grannies and Pops in Kentucky, so its been very quiet on that front and trust me, that has been like a week at the spa for me....Lex has spent the week at Cheer Camp, but its been day camp and so she's been gone during the day and whiney at night. I have been back to my normal work schedule of Monday and Friday, so my 3 days off were fantastic. I got a huge project done that i will post tomorrow. I got some scrapping done. I rearranged my house, cleaned, did laundry, ran errands, grocery shopped and am starting to recover from all of the travel. I am excited that I also met my new neighbor that moved into my Peachy Pal's house (who i still miss since she had to move to the land of sushi). Anyway, back to my new neighbor, she is a photographer and she is fantastic. I talked with her a long time and she is a lot of fun!! I like fun people. Finding fun people here in hobunk has been quite the challenge. She is not from here, they just moved here and so maybe that's the key. Anyway, I am so very excited to get to know her better. We are considering setting up a bunco group here in the neighborhood. I will say, I love all of my neighbors. They are great, I love my neighborhood. If anyone ever moves here, they are crazy if they move anywhere, but this neighborhood. On tap for today, was Lex's last day of Cheer Camp which the parents could go to and see the routine that they had come up with last week. The girls did a great job, but there's still a lot of progress to take place. I am really excited being an 80's music junkie, but their entire competition routines are based on Michael Jackson songs, you know, before he was a freak and was still cool.

the rest of the day, we are chillin' and waiting for lex's boyfriend to come over, she hasn't seen him since we went to EPCOT. He has been on restriction for most of the summer for a bad grade on his report card. I am hoping that he'll still be able to come over. Enjoy your weekend!!!

{slimy nasty creepy crawly snake story}

I am not much of a reptile person, actually I don't like turtles, snails, frogs (well, we have two African water frogs that I am so afraid to touch), but snakes....I hate snakes, they give me the heebie jeebies. When I was growing up in Orlando, I remember 2 encounters with snakes as a child. The one that I remember the most, and I was quite young (maybe 7 years old) was when we came home and a coral snake was in our house. Actually, in mine and my sister's bedroom. If you know anything about coral snake's they are highly poisonous. I remember my Dad trying to kill the snake while my sister and i sat on the living room couch and my Mother went and got a gun that I didn't even know that we owned. My father yelling at her to put the gun away, he was trying to kill the snake another way. Then my Dad put that snake in a jar with phemaldahyde and sat it on his work desk for years. I now think back on that and think how gross! Why would he do that. Who knows, my Dad is a nut. Secondly, we had a enormous black snake that hung out in our back yard. With our house backing up to the woods, this was not unusual and it lived there for years. My Dad would not kill it because he said that it killed everything else that we didn't want like rodents, etc. That was fine and dandy until we got pet rabbits. Well, you know how that goes. The snake never hurt the rabbits, but I always worried that I would go outside and see half my "Mr. Whiskers" hanging out of that big black snake's mouth.

Now, my next encounter was a few nights ago and it still gives me the heebies just thinking about it. I was walking home in the dusk by myself in my neighborhood. I was walking at a pretty good pace and I looked down right under the street light and saw that less than a foot in front of me was a rattle snake with his tail up and his head bobbing at me. He was quite defensive. It scared the pee out of me! Obviously, I ran home. I am not a "runner", but I may have it in me after all. I told my husband about the snake and he put on his flip flops (not such a smart choice, I thought, but that's just me!) and he got a ho (a GARDEN ho) and off we went. I figured that slimey nasty little booger would have taken off after his encounter with me. But no, he was in the same place and he fought Mark to the death, he put his tail up and was striking. Truth be told, I am so glad that my son is not out and about playing like he normally would be because they are obviously out there. By the next morning, the birds had picked his bones...Anyway, that is my slimey nasty creepy crawly snake story. Sleep well and watch where you step!

{the bomb, mia, rockstars, & rattlers}

Okay, rockstars we are not, but party animals....maybe! I get that I haven't blogged in awhile and I wasn't supposed to blog while on vacation, but my FIL had wireless and I had some time in the evening. Who knew! So, I will catch up on the last almost a week now (OMG, I have been zooming!) We went to Atlanta last Friday, on the road again with some MapQuest directions that were the bomb (yes, I know its no longer "cool" to say that, but I'm old so its okay) and we got there and then sat for hours in Atlanta traffic. We got Action from camp, who absolutely loved it by the way!!! If anyone is looking for a week long camp to send their child this is the "bomb" (yes, I said it again!!). I didn't mention it prior him going to camp because well, hello, this is the world wide web and I didn't really want to broadcast where my "little ray of sonshine" was located without his "mommy" for an entire week. So, anyway, he went to Camp Woodlands in Cleveland, Georgia. Its a Christian camp with a lot of outdoor activities including zip lining, jet skiing, the big pillow thing in the middle of the lake (i can't remember what that is called), plus a ton of other activities. He loved it!

On Saturday, Mark, Lex, & I went to one (if not the BEST) Broadway show that i have ever seen....Mamma Mia. Lion King was at the top and it might have just gotten kicked out of first place with this hit! If you get the opportunity to see this, I was laughing my butt of the entire time and we had killer seats, practically wiping the actors sweat off of us, he he he. It was so much fun!! The highlight was in our efforts to avoid the masses after the play and make it back to the subway, in turn we ran into all of the actors coming out from backstage and Lex got their autographs and talked with her. They were awesome and so nice. The main characters really were super. Later that night, we totally rocked out at Mark's Aunt Kate's birthday party (the whole reason for heading to Atlanta). Her DJ and the "entertainment" portion of the evening was so very much fun!!! I danced like a maniac and so did Lex, I think that even Mark broke a sweat...

Wow! What a long post...I won't go on with the rest of the week..I guess that makes you a bunch of loosers!! My week includes my personal encounter with a rattlesnake by myself at night. I will post about that tomorrow. I have just been so busy having a life here as of late. All in all our vacation was great, on the road a lot, really broke and our Action stayed with Mark's parents to work with his Grandpa cleaning the horse stables (he loves it, its great character building), so its been quiet around here without our "sexybeast"Axe wearing dude.

{the babies}

we've got new babies in the family. i love babies. Mark's brother's wife and Mark's sister both had babies within a few weeks of each other and so it was great to get to see them while visiting in Kentucky. They are both beautiful and will probably be thick as thieves growing up because they are so close in age, that in itself is a wonderful thing. Thursday was just a great day visiting with family and snuggling with babies.......

{vino}

an afternoon spent at a vineyard here in Kentucky. Funny, you don't think of Kentucky as wine country, but there are a few wine fields and even though Kentucky is horse country, it is absolutely beautiful. If you have never gotten a chance to visit, you definitely should, you won't be sorry. I also noticed that there are some beautiful wine fields and chateu's near Atlanta. I think that Napa Valley may have a little East Coast competition if this trend continues. The vineyard that we visited wasn't very big, it was quite the Mom & Pop operation, but we really enjoyed the wine tasting and the wine was very good. We bought several to take home and several for Mark's aunt whose birthday is this weekend. The vineyard also had a place where they had Shakespear in the park type of plays, you can bring your own picnics and watch plays in the evenings in a park like setting, but its "terraced" so most people could see. I just loved it, maybe one day we can get back and see the play.

We then headed back to my SIL's house for dinner , margaritas and diggin' in dirt. Well, my little nephew did the dirt diggin' and the adult's delighted in the margaritas and played a few games of "Apples to Apples", which is a lot of fun. Its the firt time that I've played that game, but its one I might pick up for future "adult" parties.

{year of the locust}

Believe it or not, but these are DEAD,
these are the shells of the locust.eeww.

We are in Kentucky, we finally made it. We are writing our thank you cards to google maps and yahoo maps as we speak....LOL!! We came during a huge locust break out.. Appparently, approx. every 15 years there is a big swarm of them that come up from the ground....biblical porportions and they have just taken over. They die and leave their entire shell just wherever, on trees, on plants, on whereever they may be. They make a horrible crickety noise, but if one gets upset and gets stuck in the car with you (guess how I know this), they make a horrible screatching noise. No wonder the Egyptians hated them so much, they are freaky!! On the other hand, they have started to thin out somewhat. My in-laws said that you literally had to run in from your car to your house and check yourself to make sure that you weren't taking any of them in with you. My little 23 month old nephew on the other hand thought that they were so coooll.... He loved picking at the dead one's and hoping that the live one's would get on his stick. Oh, to be young and nieve again. Pops (my FIL) took him outside and let him play in the creek behind their house. It was great to just spend the day with everyone and some downtime with my SIL and my nephew. Its great to see how much he's grown and how much he's talking now. He can say so much its amazing. And he's smart as a whip, I just loved playing with him...

{yahoo....my butt!}

well, the good news is that Action is @ camp, the bad news is that we spent hours in a tiny town trying to find it. We used Yahoo map directions and they were so wrong that we barely got out of my cousins driveway before things went terribly awry. The camp is 45 minutes from my cousins house, but it took us 2 hours until we pulled up to the camp... We kept stopping in this little tinytown asking for directions to this very well known, or so we thought camp, and we kept getting the craziest directions and the locals totally acted like they knew exactly where this place was and we would follow the directions and they were totally wacked! Finally, we found a place that had a map of the area and it was the simplest one turn off the main road to find. Seriously, I was nearly in tears by the time that we got there. I was ready to mow over a stinken cow, I just didn't care at that point. Mark said that he felt like we we're in the town of Deliverance..(can you hear the banjos??) I think its time for a GPS and then up the road for 2 hours on a very, very curvy thru the mountains, one right after the other no-man's land highway until we finally hit the main highway on our way to Kentucky. But we finally made it and all is good.

Action and his cousin are at a camp that has a ton to do and I am so excited for them because it is going to be such a great experience for them both, but in the same instance I am more worried than I ever imagined that i would be. I have several times today wondered what he was doing, wondering if was a good enough swimmer, wondering if the other boys were going to be nice to him. I need to cut the apron strings, but it won't matter how old my boy is, he will always be my baby. He will always be that little boy that loved Pooh Bear and would not go to sleep until I rocked him. He will always be that little boy that would sneak lollipops and try to convince me that the reason that they had "changed colors" is because the more you lick them the colors change. And I am still wondering if he's brushing his teeth and now I've added washing the lake water out of his hair...

{madison,braves, & the cousins]

on the road we are....and having a blast. we got off yesterday to quite a late start, but decided to take a side trip which was a little more scenic. my mom had told me about the town of madison, ga, which is the town that sherman refused to burn during the civil war. Sherman was childhood friends with the mayor of the town's brother and they had come to a gentleman's agreement that he wouldn't burn the town after burnind down Atlanta on his march to Charleston. So, the town is absolutely beautiful and quaint and full of antebellam homes, i got quite a few pictures, including a beautiful "gingerbread" house and when I say gingerbread house, i am referring to the incredible trim work done on the house. After visiting madison, we made it to my cousins house and we have just had the best visit. we made a last minute decision to go to an Atlanta Braves game today and it was so much fun!! The Braves played the Phillies and lost in the 9th inning which totally stunk, but it made for an exciting game. It was 110 degrees in the shade, well, not in the shade which is where our seats were. We got so lucky, we bought these package tickets which included parking, program, hot dogs, drink, and seats for one really good price. After getting there we realized that our seats we're most excellent! We had air conditioned seating and private restaraunts and stuff right behind our seats which were completely shaded, i didn't even break a sweat!! The kids had a great time together and at the end, they ran the bases and got limited edition bats made by Home Depot. how fun is that? i am loving that the cousins have had this time together and i have had this time with my cousin that i don't get very often. tomorrow we are off to take action & Jay to camp. i hope that they brush their teeth.....

{TGIF & hasta la vista!}

Thank Goodness Its Friday!! And we hit the road for our vacation tomorrow! This week has been so incredibly busy and not the fun busy that I like, but I have just had the best "time" with my kids. I usually get on here and tell you how much I want the beatings to begin, but it has been quite a pleasant week. I think part of it, at least for the moment, is Action is starting to mature a bit. Or maybe its because the beatings are starting to work, just kidding. We head out tomorrow to Atlanta to see my cousin, pick up her son and take him and Action for their week at camp. In the meantime, the rest of us are going to Kentucky, whoo-hoo!! We have not been back to Mark's hometown for nearly 2 years. It is unbelievable. We are very excited because both Mark's brother and Mark's sister have had babies in the last few months (actually his sister is having her's today.....and its going to be a girl...I love baby girls!) Then back to Atlanta to pick up Action and attend a birthday party with some of Mark's relatives that the kids haven't seen in 8 years or so. We are really looking forward to it, so if my posts are sketchy or just not here in the next week, that's why! But I will post pics etc. when I return.

Regarding Lex's moles, she is doing okay, they actually biopsied one of them. They think its okay, but it was a little "suspicious". Mark's toe curling boo boo is still hurting, but healing. I know that some of you have asked about him and I so appreciate it and i know that he does too. Poor guy, its been a week for him. Lots on his work front, he is really needing and looking forward to this time away more than most know. Have a great weekend everyone...

{holy moley!}

it has been the busiest last few days!!! there has not been time to get my head together to do any posting. We have been busy getting stuff together for Action to go away to camp next week. He is very excited, he is going to go "away" to camp with his cousin that is his age and loves to hang out with, but they don't usually get to spend a lot of time together because we don't see him very much. His mother is my first cousin and we we're super close as kids and teenagers and it really makes me sad that our boys don't really even know each other when we we're two peas in a pod growing up. The boys will hopefully get to know each other well and even more so they will LIKE each other by the end of next week while they are away at camp.

On the other hand, I have spent most of my time running, running, running and I would love to say in my Nike's on the road, loosing weight for the next marathon, BUT in reality it has been in my car to the doctor's office, school's, post office's...Ugh! Both kids and I have had a ton of doctor appointments this week. Action had a ton of shots that had to be done, I had some "catch up" stuff, and Lex has some mole's that need to be removed and that is actually being done TODAY in about an hour. Holy moley, the poor kid has quite a few mole's and 2 that are just in really bad places and one that has gotten really big. Neither one is pre-cancerous or anything like that, but the doctor thinks that it should be taken off. So, I've got one on Tylenol because of all of his shots, the other that will probably be on Tylenol in a few hours on the couch and I will be whizzing thru the house mad dashing cleaning and doing laundry because I have to go back to work tomorrow which might be a relief from the last few days! NOT! Even with all of the insanity of the last few days of being so busy, I love it. I love being a Mom, i love being with my kids.

{pickin' boogers & toe curling boo boo's}

Kickin' off the weekend on one of the hottest day's of 2008 with a project of finishing up painting the back room of the house. I am usually the paint supervisor because Mark doesn't like me to paint, I'm not sure why. I know that when I did a wall in my scrapbook/den room that was chocolate brown it came out drippy, but honestly it was the paint. This weekend Mark had to go into work and we had one roller left and just a few walls, he had done the "cutting" in and I said that I've got to finish it up and he reluctantly agreed, and woo-hoo i was in, but boy oh boy, I am out of shape because I am sore again today (after 2 days). The only thing that i had a huge irritation with is the paint boogers that would come onto the wall that i would have to pick off, what causes those? Mark said it was the tray, but I just couldn't figure out how a tray would cause big globby boogers to come onto the wall when painting.

And then for the boo-boo portion of the weekend, poor Markie poo..... he fell off of his bike and has the biggest toe curling bruises to prove it. He went to the doc this AM and spent the biggest portion of his morning to find out that he has deeeply bruised ribs, gave him Tylenol, Tylenol 4, and sent him back to work. He has been moaning in pain for 2 days. Poor guy, hopefully he starts to heal soon..

{butch up, nancy!}

Okay, we've got one week of summer vaca down and how many to go before school starts again??? No, I'm just kidding. Summer is actually my absolute favorite time of year, i love it and hopefully this summer is no exception. The kids we're out of school this past week while I worked a full time schedule which we haven't done since Action was born.....well, ever! Action was home by himself and lex taught Kids Cheer Camp all day (she worked her hiney off), so, we had some issues that we are working on with Action. Coming home @ 5:30 to Action still in his jommies with his brain wigging out to video games and mind numbing Nickelodeon shows, eating Pringles with that glazed look in his eyes wasn't going to fly after day 1. He was going to have chores to keep his happy hiney busy, including things that are normally out of his "comfort" zone and we found that made one un-happy kid, especially when the realization of "poop patrol" was an everyday chore for him came to light. He hates that and usually does a crappy job (I know that there's a joke in there somewhere!) Oh well!! I have no sympathy. As Mark would say, "butch up nancy!" So, I have felt like every night that I have come home it was "lecture" time because I've just decided, (clear throat....Mark and I have decided) that we are going to start ruling with more of an iron fist regarding the help around the house from the kids and not only the quantity, but the quality. I hate this part of parenting, its just no fun, but has to be done...have a great weekend!! we've got lots on our agenda...

{one silly political kung fu fighter}

Okay, so my post yesterday was quite silly! In my defense, I was @ work all day and had only 17 customers and thought that I was going to loose my mind. I am not a big fan of boredom. Today, not too busy either, if someone would give me some tennies and a kickboxing instructor, I am in the mood to do some Kung Fu Fighting, don't ask me why. I just have a lot of pent up energy. The sad thing is that by the time I get home, my energy seems to have escaped me and I am one pooped out Mom.

okay, back to the silly post, while OBVIOUSLY cute/strappy/stylish/comfortable shoes are not going to solve our gas crisis. I really do believe even just the "threat" of discontinuing our own self induced moritorium on drilling in the Atlantic/Pacific/Alaska would have the Saudi's peeing in their pants (if they actually wear pants under those robes) and that may even be enough to get a little relief. There I got all political. Just call me O'Reilly!!!

{my epiphany}

I have pondered the great depths of my mind the last few days while I stare out my teller window on the great and sophisticated ways that as a country that this mind numbing crisis that stares us down could be resolved in a manner that would free us of how these insanely, ungoldly, indescribably ridiculous, money gouging, oil rich countries control us and are probably having secret, laughing their butts off at us meetings, and while I am actually quite politically minded. (please never get in a political debate with me, you WILL loose!)...other than to suggest and I actually do recommend the highly controversial, to heck with the cariboo...start killing the trees...and pull out the drills in Alaska, I do not believe that there really is any other solution. BUT this...(this is purely comical because honestly, I cannot get all "political" on my blog), I think that it is time that we start to make and invest on really cute and comfy shoes and we start walking and boycotting those oil rich countries. This is the deal with shoes, if they are cute, they aren't generally comfortable. If they're comfortable, they look like you should be working in a hospital. What is up with that? I came to this "epiphany" today while wearing the cutest shoes that I think I have worn to date (got a great deal on them @ Dillards, practically gave them away!). Not only are these shoes just the cutest, but they are the comfiest things I have ever worn! They are Naturalizers...why can't all cute shoes be this comfy. I would walk a lot more, I would walk across the parking lot to get my lunch verses drive. There ya go, gas saved right there!! If we as a nation stood up and bought shoes that we're comfy and we didn't have to give up style, how much gas would be saved, how much money would the oil rich countries loose? Would they still gather in their secret rooms and laugh at us behind our backs then? Or would we become the country that "told them" with our stylish "on the go", in your face shoes? I ask you America? What say you?

{$4.00 a gallon}

Even though gas is $4 a gallon ALMOST..... we still headed down to Orlando one last time before we are blacked out with our Disney passes and even so, its too hot to go during the summer. Those that go during the summer are nutso! Mark really wanted to go down to see his guy pal, Big Al (the kids and I call him Big Owl becuase that's what Action called him when he was little) and Mark had no to desire to go the EPCOT flower and garden expo, but I have always wanted to go and so did my Mom. Lex invited her boyfriend along and i truthfully thought that it might be a little odd and wasn't sure that i wasn't regretting it about 5 seconds after she said that his parents okay'd it. i really though that we should maybe "uninvite" him. But he is such a great kid and very polite and "real" with us. He's no Eddie Haskell or anything (oh, for those of you who are too young to know who Eddie Haskell is he was a suck up kid from a show in the 50's). He gelled great the whole trip with us and my parents. On Saturday, the "boys" went airboating and checked out gators and played with big fat pigs and long slimey snakes and ate gator and frog legs. I must admit that I'm sorry that the "girls" missed out on that little extraganza...NOT! We decided to do a little shoppping, lunch and a movie. You know, typical girlie stuff. All in all our weekend was pretty busy, but a lot of fun. Glad to be home, but we have a very busy week this week, I will be working full time all week this week. So, my blogging may be sparse and it may be pretty boring. Although, sitting there day after day doing credits and debits, I may, I just may get a great epiphany that I will be happy to share with you.....Maybe I will discover how to fix the energy crisis, aaahhh...that is what I will ponder this week.

{thoughtful thursday}

thursday is coming to a close and i titled this thoughtful, but truth be told its more melancholy. its been a really rough day for me. i don't like to talk about a lot of things that are hard or might be depressing, but i have really been struggling with a one year anniversary of a death of a very good friend of mine, she died of ovarian cancer. Our family just recently remembered a close family member on a 2 year anniversary of his death. Both of these people were very young and their deaths still seem so unreal to me sometimes. And today I started out scrapbooking a little bit and decided I was going to scrapbook a page that i keep putting back in my bucket of New Year's 2006 because it was the last time that we saw our family member and everyone was so happy and I just haven't been able to do it without getting upset. But I wanted to scrap it because I want to remember the good times and have them as keepsakes. Well, I also get a call from my friend who died husband. I haven't talked to him since a few weeks after she died. I had called several times and writtten a few notes, but I had not heard back from him. I think about them all the time and have worried about how they are doing. My friend had 3 children. But I talked to him for nearly 2 hours and it was really great to talk to him, they are doing okay. Its been a rough year and he told me some things that had happened that we're upsetting. But he would like for the kids to come stay with me for a few days over the summer, one of the things that my friend wanted to accomplish before she died was get her pictures in order and organize them in albums (they are in tubs), but that didn't happen and just recently their middle daughter has tried to scrap some of them and needs some help and he has asked me to help get those pics in order because he is at oddds as to what to do. Anyway, all of this has just gotten me in a state of melancholy and thinking about a lot of things today. Mostly just sad. But very glad to hear from him and glad to hear that they are all doing okay.

{1 wild wednesday}

it has been one freaky deaky wild wednesday!! my day started off quite boring, not unlike most of my days, but i got a call from a friend of mine that i haven't seen in quite awhile and asked me if i wanted to hit a scrapbook store in jax and maybe "do" lunch & shop. Well, heck yes!! It took me all of 5 seconds to come up with that answer! So, I was outta here like a bat out of....well you know the rest!!

We hit the scrap store, we enjoyed a scrumpdilicious lunch and some shopping and began to head back to town only to discover that traffic is stopped and people are turning around in the median to to go the other way, even a school bus did this and got totally stuck and I mean it was STUCK!(what an idiot, right?) We thought that maybe it was an accident up ahead and we just had to wait it out because this is the only way that we knew how to get home from Jax, we had to go over this big honkin' bridge. As we got closer, we realized that everything was closed, they diverted us off the highway onto some road with no detour, no further directions, nada! We had no clue as to where we we're and there we're cops everywhere! It was really kind of freaky! (If it was Friday, I would have titled this Freaky Friday, he! he!) I'm thinking that this would be a really great time for a GPS! My friend made a phone call to see if there was anything on the news to find out what the hey....AND come to find out there was a Jumper on the bridge that they we're trying to talk down. He had climbed up on some scaffoling. Now, mind you this happened during rush hour last week on the same bridge. What is the deal? Our only stress reliever: making really bad jokes.

We toured all thru Jacksonville with a million other commuter's, who at least probably KNEW where they were going, trying to figure out how to get home. AND 2.5 hours later, I arrived home to my humble abode where I was greeted by not only my hounds AKA "the welcome wagon", but 2 kids who we're too interested in their movie to notice that i walked in the door. its just been a wild day.

{trombone tuesday}

i thought it might be fun to title my blogs this week with titles that include the day of the week, you know kinda like day of the week underwear, except my blog....

Action is joining the band next year in Middle School, so we went up to the school so that he could pick an instrament and give them a whirl and see what suited him. he wanted to be "percussion" which is drums and i thought "oh lordy lordy", but the band director said that she only picks 5 people to do this, so she gives him a test run. Here's my sweet little boy, he was so serious about this and was trying so hard to impress her, but he didn't quite have the coordination. She commented on his long fingers (he gets that from me!) and his lips and said that she thought that he would be good on the sax. So, he went out and gave it a whirl and truth be told, I was prepared to plug my ears because he has never touched an instrament before and I just knew that it couldn't be good, but i was pleasantly surprised. It was really nice, it sounded great. Maybe it was a fluke (I said fluke, not flute....that was a joke), but he rocked!! The band instructor said that he hit notes that she's been teaching kids for 3 years that haven't been able to get. Mark and I were pretty proud. I know that I titled my post "trombone tuesday" and well, the moral of the story is don't always believe what you read. I only did that because sax didn't start with a "T", but its close enough in the instrament category, don't ya think? I am hoping that he is a mozart in his field, praying that he has the gift because I'm not sure that the bassett will not be howling, the neighbors complaining, and enough xanax for me in the world if he's not!!

{monday madness}

Its Monday and its hot (a toasty 92 degrees) and beautiful and I am at work and thinking that this is my last crazy, maddening Monday before my kids are out of school! Next week, they will probably still be snoozing and I will be able to roll out of bed, brew my cup-o-joe, take a leisurely shower without anyone banging on my door tattling on each other, i can actually maybe even eat breakfast andI won't get heartburn yelling :" eat some breakfast, brush your teeth, change your clothes..you wore those yesterday (this is actually quite common, believe it or NOT!), brush your teeth again (actually this is said a few times and whether by the time we leave it is accomplished or not is debateable), let's go, let's go, let's go, no its his/her turn to sit in the front seat". Those are the general angst of every single morning that i have to work causing the maddening days where I feel like I need to pull my eyes out of their sockets to relieve the stress.

Then the days that I don't work will become the days that I will hear the daily quote from my children of, "i'm bored." Well, I saw a post on 2peas and i loved it, laughed my hiney off, its a little quote that I have memorized and plan on using when I get that irritating little quip of "I'm bored", here it goes..."i am not a cruise director, but I can be a slave driver and find you something to do if you mention it again, your choice." I love it, I'm the Mom!!!

If your stopping in my blog from stampinwhenican.blogspot.com, stop by and say Hello!!

{crime & punishment}

Post Disclaimer: the information within is based on true facts, but the names and the situation have been witheld to protect the innocent as well as the guilty.

With that being said, here's my rant of the day or maybe should I say thought. Yesterday it would have been a rant, therefore I chose not to post at all. One of my children did something that was wrong and it was wrong towards me as well. So, Mark and I decided that the punishment would be grounding for the weekend. We decided this knowing that this weekend is huge. A huge event that this "child" has been looking forward to, planning for, and non-stop talking about for awhile now with a best friend. But the "wrong" was quite thoughtless and selfish and just plain, well you get it....wrong. So, that is the punishment we decided on, but the "punishment guilt" is getting to me. I know if you are a Mom, you know exactly what I am talking about..."the punishment guilt" is what you get when you issue a punishment for a "crime" and then start re-thinking it, but now its out there!! Its out there! Its said, its done and if you un-do it! They won't respect you and truth be told, this child desperves the "punishment". But you truly do feel sorry when you know how much they would have really enjoyed this event and how much they were looking forward to it. It makes you crazy, we love our kids and don't want to have to do these things, but know that these are necessary growing pains. Mark was so hard core about it and then last night, he comes to me and says that he's re-thinking it. Well, too bad! Its out there, no going back, right!!?? No going back, walking the green mile..........

{good n clean in snoozerville}

well, its just been one of those days. one of those days where i find that its just gone and nothing has been accomplished that i wanted or intended to accomplish and that just makes me tired. i had a carpet cleaner guy come out to clean these yucky carpets today, and they still aren't completely dry. he went ahead and "scotchguarded" them. What the heck that means we'll see with time AND dog barf, soccer cleats, dirty feet, and smelly kids. But he said that is what is going to take so long to dry. But this LLLLOOOONNNGGGG? Its nearly 7PM and they are still damp, I still hate to put stuff back into my house from the back porch and off the beds and the hallways. Question: when is it dry enough?? Poor Coopy has been in his kennel for a good chunk of the day because every time I let him out, he wants to wallow on the damp floor, what a ding-a-ling!!

With my realization that it was going to take forever to dry, I scooted out the door to hunt down a scrapbook store that I had heard thru the grapevine that was 25 minutes or so down the highway, then as i am leaving my neighborhood, I noticed that gas had gone up again 10 cents....10 cents, did you notice i had to write that twice. When does it stop?? Where does the gas insanity start to make people wake up and smell the coffee?? So, I turned my happy little hiney back home and sat on the couch and ate M&M's and watched my tivo'd "stories". Not because I wanted to, oh no!! I wanted to be out checking out the latest and the greatest scrap crap, but I am also tired of making the oil companies rich. So, there! They are less rich today and I am probably fatter! But eventually my carpets will be dry and my snoozerville life will at least be clean! But tomorrow.....I SCRAP!!

{hobunk's got a hot spot!}

Hobunk's got a hot spot, baby!! yeah you heard me right!!! As most of you know Ihave a few little issues with our small town that I have lovingly referred to as "hobunk" and one of the reasons is that there is no place to go out eat where the service is good, the food is priced well, there isn't a drive thru or a big buffet in the middle of the restaraunt.....Well, we had heard thru the grapevine that there was a new mexican restaraunt (which is my favorite food!!) that had opened which was a small chain and it was ACTUALLY really good!!! Well, I had heard all of this before and disappointments always ensued.... Do not get me wrong, we don't go out to eat a lot, but when we would like to have a nice night out, hittin' the road down to Jax when gas has climbed past $3.50 a gallon is distressing!! But today, Mark and I decided to meet for lunch and it was really good and boy, they we're jumpin! Busy,busy, busy!! And not a buffet in site!! It was clean, the service was great, the food was "ooh la la"....And me, being the chatty natty that I am, met the manager, Miguel, loved him!! Told him we'll back!! So, if you come visit, we will be going to the newest hot spot in town baby!! I'll even buy the first pitcher of margaritas (yep, they sell 'em by the pitcher!!) Mama's happy now!!